The Kansas City Chiefs are set to add a new safety to the mix, agreeing to sign DB Adrian Colbert once he passes his mandatory COVID-19 screening. The team seems to want to add some more competition to the mix at the safety position, even with Juan Thornhill returning to practice for Kansas City.
It’s crucial for the Chiefs to have three safeties that can play on the field together in their big nickel package. They utilized it often last year, even late in the year after Thornhill had suffered his knee injury. It’s also important that Kansas City has enough bodies at training camp. With the amount of passing they do, safeties are doing a lot of running in practice and guys can get worn down quickly.
Here’s a look at three plays that show what exactly the Chiefs are getting in their newest player:
Good instincts
This is one of my favorite plays from Colbert because he wasn’t even credited for an assist on the play, but he absolutely makes the play happen. He’s lined up as the single-high safety — No. 36 for the Dolphins — the furthest from the play. He’s the last line of defense for his team.
You’ll notice that Bengals RB Joe Mixon gets every defender moving to their right, but Colbert sees what is about to happen. Mixon cuts it back and the defensive end loses backside contain. Instead of waiting for Mixon to come to him, Colbert crashes down and fills. Now Colbert misses the tackle, over-running the play slightly, but he also forced Mixon back inside where there are a number of friendly jersey’s ready to wrap him up.
It’s not perfectly executed, but the end result is a one-yard gain for the Bengals when it could have been much more. It came down to a good heads-up play by Colbert and an attacking mentality from the safety. That type of mentality and awareness will mesh well with the group that Kansas City currently has at the safety position.
New #Chiefs safety Adrian Colbert had a hell of a game in his first career start in 2017. He's No. 38 here. Four solo tackles and two passes defended. Good job reading this play, reacting and locating the ball. Worth noting, Steve Spagnuolo was on the #Giants sideline. pic.twitter.com/JFbCuiXsDb
— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) August 19, 2020
A contested-catch champion
This play comes from Colbert’s first career start back in 2017. He played for the San Francisco 49ers, wearing No. 38.
He reads the play all the way here, motioning to his right ahead of the snap. He gets over to the defender in a hurry, locates the football and bats it away. It’s not the only snap he had like this in the game either, he had another play earlier in the game where he swatted the ball out of the receiver’s hands. This is a common theme throughout his career, he’s always a guy who seems to compete at the catch point, with eight passes defended total in 17 games started. He’s not going to allow easy receptions into his coverage.
Overall, this was a great game for Colbert. He had four tackles and two passes defended in a 31-21 win over the New York Giants. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo on the opposing sideline, and I wonder if this game didn’t have some influence on the decision to add him to this defense.
Range
I wanted to take a look at a play that actually could’ve had major implications for the Chiefs last year. Colbert was part of the “FitzMagic game” that helped Kansas City clinch the No. 1 seed. Now, Ryan Fitzpatrick gets a ton of credit for this win, but Tom Brady and the New England Patriots actually got the ball back with 24 seconds remaining. This play happened with nine seconds left in the game and I thought it demonstrated a positive, but also a weak moment for Colbert.
Colbert, again, is lined up as the deep safety on this play, wearing No. 36. Brady launches the ball deep right to N’Keal Harry. If CB Tae Hayes didn’t stick with Harry on this play, and instead, Harry comes down with the pass, the Chiefs would have been in trouble. The Patriots had two timeouts and could have stopped the clock to kick a game-tying field goal.
Most importantly, Colbert doesn’t get over in time to make a play on the ball. He’s close but he doesn’t quite get there. He’d be in the area to make a tackle had Harry come down with it. His range from the deep safety spot is more often impressive than not and it still impresses me here. He just needs to get a better jump on this play to get over in time from a centerfield position.
It’s worth noting that Colbert did play cornerback in college. I have to wonder if the Chiefs view him as a versatile piece in the same way they used Kendall Fuller late in 2019.
At the end of the day, there’s a lot to like about Colbert’s game and he should fit in nicely as soon as he’s allowed to join the team.
